Welcome to HVAC-Talk.com, a non-DIY site and the ultimate Source for HVAC Information & Knowledge Sharing for the industry professional! Here you can join over 150,000 HVAC Professionals & enthusiasts from around the world discussing all things related to HVAC/R. You are currently viewing as a NON-REGISTERED guest which gives you limited access to view discussions

To gain full access to our forums you must register; for a free account. As a registered Guest you will be able to:

Participate in over 40 different forums and search/browse from nearly 3 million posts.

Answer the phone, we got a problem boss !

One of my guys called today, pulled fuses, unit continues to run. I'm not sure what to think, so he sent this picture. I'll talk to him in the morning to see what he eventually found with it, unit got changed out anyway.

Kind of got an answer on this one

The homeowner tied in a piece of equipment in the garage (behind disco), apparentlty the way he double lugged and hooked it up backfed 115v back thru the load side. The homeowner disconnected his contraption and everything worked normal but through my guys off. He was doing something with 3 phase equip. hooked with a 3rd leg generator. I still don't understand exactly what he was doing or why and how. I'll stop by on monday to check on everything and make sure he hasn't tied into our equipment again, maybe get a more thorough understanding.

We had one that we could not turn off the power too, even with the main c/b turned to off. We had to pull the meter and it was still on but that gave us the answer we were looking for, someone hooked it directly to the utility wires before the meter. Free a/c? It was a bank owned, got purchased and they were fixing it up to flip so we don't know who did it. Very dangerous being the wiring was not protected ether.

Ohm's Law

Remember that according to Ohm's Law that if voltage goes down, Amps go up. If your unit was rated at 230V and was only given 115V and running, the Amperage drawn was doubled. The motors and compressor were certainly not rated for that amp draw and the product was overheated. That heat would destroy your motors if it weren't for the thermal overloads inside the motors/compressors to protect them. Also remember anytime a safety is tripped, it is weakened. This means that you are lucky the safeties worked. But what the heck is going on around you? Your A/C is a huge liability and nobody should steal power from it's disconnect, as that is against any code. With less than a $40 breaker (most are less than $20) and the same wiring to the equipment, the same voltage can be utilized in a safe manner to the equipment/operator and the HVAC system can remain isolated on it's own circuit as it should always be.